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Didactics and Clinical Skills for Family Medicine
Didactics
Our formal didactic conferences are held on Wednesday mornings from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. This is protected educational time for our residents, and all Family Medicine and off-service attending physicians realize that residents will be at didactics every Wednesday morning. All available clinical faculty attend Wednesday conferences with the residents, including our physicians, psychologist, and clinical nurse specialist to provide a truly multidisciplinary team learning concept.
Our weekly conferences utilize a multi-track system to provide the best learning opportunities to our residents based on their level of expertise and educational needs. PGY-1 and transitional year residents traditionally need more exposure to inpatient and acute care topics, while PGY-2 & 3 residents are more interested in chronic disease management, and the outpatient setting. Junior residents may be attending a presentation on recognition of atrial dysrhythmias while senior residents are attending a practice management session on billing and coding. Behavioral science topics are similarly tracked into two levels. Junior residents will cover content such as psychiatric emergencies or concerns of the hospitalized patient while senior residents will discuss family violence or adolescent substance abuse. Monthly inpatient M&M cases are presented by the family medicine team from the previous month.
Journal Club is held monthly. Each month a resident is assigned to select a journal article in collaboration with a mentoring clinical faculty member. The resident is responsible for presenting the article and leading a critical discussion and evaluation of the article's main points.
Balint Group meetings are held monthly over lunch with separate sessions for junior and senior residents. Led by our staff psychologist, Balint Group provides a confidential opportunity for residents to share experiences and gain insight from their peers.
Optional activities for learning also include off-service conferences, and weekly CME offerings at both of our inpatient facilities.
Clinical Skills NEWS
Thanks to a very generous grant allocation from the SVMMC Foundation, specifically from the Ken Connell and Dr Eric Robinson Clinics Endowment Fund, we have been able to purchase the following items to enhance resident education and quality patient care:
Each Office now has a new Huntleigh FlexiDoppler-D930 - portable, handheld Doppler for maternity care and routine vascular use.
The Gandy Office is the homebase for a Cardiobeat Vascular Doppler System with probe and headset for more difficult vascular patients, primarily those we may see on home care visits and in the Chronic Disease Management Program. This Doppler will "travel" to home visits and each office during scheduled Chronic Disease Management patient care visits.
In the Medical Education Resource Room, we now have the following equipment for resident practice and use. These can also be borrowed to use in the offices for patient education. Four (4) Little Anne mannikins for adult CPR practice and code practice; Four (4) Baby Anne mannikins for infant CPR practice and code practice; AED Trainer - this is a trainer for the real AED located outside the Gandy Office. Again, can be borrowed for demonstrations and presentations to the general public about the importance of AED's for saving lives; Difficult Airway Intubation Head - to practice intubation skills.
We also have two OB/GYN manikins purchased from a separate fund from the SVMMC Auxillary that are in the Med Ed Resource Room for our residents to use to practice pelvic exams, colposcopy, various fetal presentations/delivery etc. Can be used for patient education with pregnant patients, as well. Anything in the Med Ed Resource Room is available for use by our residents at any time! Pig Feet are always in the freezer to practice suturing skills. Videotapes, knot tying boards, & books may be signed out for home use. | 
